• Tuesday-What'sUP September 20 - 05:48 am

"Menominee is where the best of Michigan begins"...so says the city's web site. I found these interesting photos from the downtown area, in Robert Halonen's photo gallery, along with an inviting shot of the beach and marina too. There's something to be said for keeping the "old", like these neat turreted towers on the Berg's Landing building and the unidentified second building. Those towers add a lot of character to the buildings and the town too. Not only does downtown Menominee feature these historical buildings, but it's located on the waterfront, so the beach and marina are right downtown too! I'm going to have to put this U.P. town on my "must see" list for sure!

Good Morning.
Got close one time but never got right to Menominee.
I like the pictures of the old building, they have better looks then the ones they build now.

Was Billy Wells from Menominee or am I confused again?

I enjoy the signs of craftmanship found in these old buildings, too. They are all signs of cheap labor and a rather rigid training regimen for apprentices/journeymen and finally master of a trade. A surprising number of folks carry on the traditions of quality work today but finding them and the money to hire them can be something of a problem. I suppose those requirements were hard to fill "back in the day", too.

I think Menominee is where I toured "The Mystery Ship".

You bet Billy Wells was from Menominee! Part of the "Pony"
backfield at Michigan State in the early '50s, I recall. I wonder if
Wells could even make the starting lineup at Menominee today.
My word, what a team they have there! It looks like it might be
better than last year's, and those Maroons were the class of
Michigan. I hear not even mighty Muskegon is willing to
schedule the Maroons. Oh, and by the way, that old downtown
in Menominee is quite nice, and they have a new public library
on the waterfront which blends in very well too.

Hi Mary and Charlie.

Betty and I are heading down there very soon to ride the old Queen III to Sturgeon Bay. The boat leaves every morning from a dock in Menominee. First trip to Menominee for us so we are looking forward to seeing the city as well. Check out the Sprit of LaSalle.

Menominee is my "home town," although I left for college in 1946. I have not lived there since-- but I have visited many, many times. I don't know the name of the building pictured, however there were several with turrets including a tavern-bar on the corner of 16th and 13th. The Menominee Opera House rivaled the Kerredge and Calumet opera houses. All our school plays, concerts, and graduations were held there. The photo of the marina was taken from Memorial Beach north of the breakwater. The el-shaped breakwater was built by the WPA and was a favorite fishing spot for years. A second shorter breakwater was built later to the south to provide more protection. The marina is HUGE with a forest of masts during sailing season. Billy Wells was a year younger than me. Football was always a big thing in Menominee. At my high school reunions the main talk among the men is how they beat Marinette in the M&M game. I believe the rivalry is over 100 years old. Fred Hofer and his team have won state honors. "Wells" is an historic name in Menominee due to the Wells Lumber Company and particularly the company's fire of April 13, 1931. Another claim to fame by Menominee during the 30's was the river smelt run. Cranes with nets were hung from railings on both sides of the interstate bridge which is 3/4 mile long. There was a huge carnival with a queen, and notoriously, a wrestling match in a ring filled with smelt! The Menominee and Marinette Historical Societies have published calendars picturing much of their history. Green Bay provided a marvelous recreation place for us back in the 30's and 40's. However, pilots flying over during the 50's and 60's could see the increasing pollution of the water.

Menominee became the adoptive "hometown" of many of the Paull clan. I had four sets of Aunts and Uncles that made that beautiful town their home when they left the Ahmeek/Mohawk area. My aunt, Grace Houle, is the last one there today. We visited Menominee every summer on our way "Up Home" from the Detroit area and still go there as often as possible to see Aunt Grace. Its a beautiful quiet town today and evening spent watching the boats at the marina will long be remembered. Today the town has many interesting shops to stroll through and beautiful old homes all along the waters edge to see.

One of the reasons we have these beautiful buildings is the intersection of old world craftsmen immigrating to the US at the same time that industrialization made prefabricated parts cheaper. When you see the Queen Anne style Victorian homes with all of the spndles and diminsional woodwork, that was only afforfdable because factories produced the pieces, which were then distributed via a well developed transportation system. The materials were not cheap, but they were affordable. From Europe, we got many masons and artisans who brought the skills they had learned and applied them to the buildings they built in the new country. The result was a period of incredibly beautiful buildings that cannot be affordably replicated today.

By the way, these masons put their skills to use underground too. In the Baltic, Champion, and Trimountain mines, masons used poor rock to build dry walls for the horizontal cut and fill mining method they used there. Visitors remarked on the quality of these long dry walls built without mortar.

Now, would someone like to buy me the building in the second building? I need a vacation property.

Donald Kippela,

Not taking the Isle Royal Queen?

Hmmm.

Donald Kippela,

Sorry, I meant to say not taking the Spirit of Lasalle.

Hello from Menominee!

What a surprise to come to Pasty Cam and find pictures of the town where I live.

Menominee has one of the most beautiful Downtowns and Marinas by far. Fun little shops up and down 1st Street. Mary, If you get to Menominee, be sure and have dinner at Berg's Landing! You won't be sorry, just be sure and make reservations! It's the only place I know that rivals the Harbor Haus in Copper Harbor. (Even the old Isle Royale Queen goes by on Sunset cruises! Sorry, the wait staff doesn't do the dance tho.) The view from their dining room is breath-taking, overlooking the Marina and the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin.

And Marsha, yep, Menominee would have been where you toured the Mystery Ship! The "Alvin Clark".

Love seeing my hometown on the pages of Pasty! Thank you!

Gosh don't you just love the old buildings....I tried to get the City of Novi to keep some of the old downtown on Grand-river....but no way, the people at that time wanted new and to be progressive....Bahhhhhhh When they torn the Stage Coach stop down,(#6/Novi) I cried.....It was a really neat building with character...so much for progress.

God Bless all you ducks out there today.....lol

Real nice pictures of the only city in the U.P that I have never been to..I did land there a few times on the BLUE GOOSE enroute to Houghton from Detroit...I believe it was 11 minutes from Green Bay air time...

WWW.MICHIGANHISTORICALMARKERS.COM
French-Canadian voyager Louis Chaput (Chappee) came here during the late 1790s. Chaput, an agent for the American Fur Company, was the first white settler in Menominee, which was named for the Menominee Indians who inhabited this area. Within the next one hundred years Menominee developed into a prosperous city, built along the waterfront with money from the booming lumber industry. By 1890 twelve steam powered mills operated here. The fishing and paper industries and the production of pig iron contributed to a broadening economic base. By 1902 the population had reached thirty thousand. As the pine forests of the Upper Peninsula were depleted, the population declined. During the 1990s it stabilized at nine thousand.

Charles In Esky. I believe Billy Wells, LeRoy Bolden, Evan Slonac and Tom Yewcic played in the '51 MSU backfield for Biggie Munn. I went to Columbus on a train excursion to the Ohio State/MSU game.MSU was trailing and then scored on a trick pass play to win the game 24-20 and go on to a undefeated season (National Champions). I think MSU joined the Big 10 1n 1953. Later in his life Mr. Munn suffered a stroke. He had physical therapy at the facility where my wife worked in Lansing.

What a wonderful wealth of information about Menominee.
Thanks folks! I've never been there, but now I definitely have
the yen to go.

Upon closer examination of these great shots, I believe my Aunt Grace ran a small lunch counter in the corner store of the second picture. I remember going in as a kid and getting ice cream cones. Now she volunteers at a great Historical Museum there in town that is a must see for all of you that plan to visit.
http://menomineehistoricalsociety.org/Museum.htm

Tim in Oscoda--
Thanks for the tip. Doesn't your Aunt Grace sometimes write in to
Pasty Cam?

No...she doesn't have a puter...my mother Betty does from Arizona tho'...

I'm so glad I made the trip into downtown Menominee this time! I've been through Menominee many times, but have never gone downtown before. They were preparing for some sort of festival or Farmer's Market the day I was there; I wish I'd have had the time to stay longer. I was almost tempted to take a quick swim there at the beach.